Athletic shoes sometimes carry sewn designs, such as the manufacturer's logo, top stitching, or variously colored patches of leather or plastic. Substantially all such decoration is applied during manufacture, when individual panels of the shoe assembly can be independently sewn upon. However, once the shoe is assembled, sewing on a new design, such as by embroidery, is very difficult. In part, this difficulty arises because the completed shoe is thick-walled and stiff, often having multiple layers of leather, plastic, padding and lining. Heavy duty sewing equipment is required do a good job of sewing through such materials.
A further and related difficulty is that a completed shoe offers limited access to its interior, to the area where parts of the sewing machine must reach during post-assembly sewing. Thus, it is difficult to gain adequate access to permit sewing a design after the shoe is assembled. Adding to the problem, many athletic shoes are manufactured with seams, colored patches, and decorative panels, which are disposed at varied angles and curves on the shoe body. When a design is added to the shoe, the best arrangement is to follow a pre-existing patch, panel, or seam. However, gaining access to follow an oddly angled feature clearly presents a greater difficulty.
Several patents disclose machinery that is adapted for use in shoe making, although none appears suited for applying post-manufacture designs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,126,853 to Maves teaches a support for a shoe that enables a commercial sewing machine to apply ornamental stitching to shoe leather before final assembly. Thus, this patent does not address the problems of applying post-manufacture decoration.
Another example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,787 to Brutti, which is directed to a shoe holding jig for securing the shoe while the uppers are stitched. The scope of this patent is limited to a mechanism for stitching a moccasin.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,119 to Hussey discloses a clamp that holds a shoe around the edges of the sole, to permit hand-sewing. The clamp is mounted on pivot brackets, allowing the clamp to be shifted in two planes. However, this patent does not teach how this arrangement could be adapted to work in combination with a sewing machine.
It would be desirable to create a device capable of positioning a premanufactured athletic shoe for subsequent addition of embroidered designs. In particular, it would be desirable to position such a shoe at whatever angle might be required so that the added design can follow the pre-existing patterns on the shoe. Because athletic shoes tend to have thick, stiff uppers, such a positioning device must be capable of operating in combination with a sewing machine, such as an industrial type of sewing machine which is capable of working on heavy materials.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the shoe hoop or shoe support of this invention may comprise the following.